Flag issue splinters Democratic unity

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution ^ | 4/13/03 | JIM THARPE

[Between the Lines]

An uncivil war has erupted in the state Democratic Party over Gov. Sonny Perdue's proposed referendum on the state flag, a family feud that could be a boon for Republicans.

Conservative white Democrats parted from black lawmakers on the high-profile state flag vote last week, splitting the black-white alliance that in recent decades has formed Democrats' power base in Georgia and other Southern states.

"We asked a lot of our white Democratic colleagues if they could help us on the flag vote and they said, 'No, we've got to worry about the people back home,' " said state Rep. Barbara Mobley (D-Decatur). "We've looked it up, and a lot of them are in strong African-American districts.

"We are putting them on notice."

Mobley was one of the black members of the state House who addressed the chamber last week as lawmakers voted 111-67 for a new state flag. If voters fail to approve that banner, which closely resembles the pre-1956 state flag, they would then have an opportunity to vote to return the state to the post-1956 flag. All three flags incorporate a Confederate banner, which many blacks find offensive.

"It has the potential of really hurting the state Democratic Party," said Emory University political scientist Merle Black. "It underscores a party where a strong urban-rural split is paralleled by a racial split."

The black-white Democratic coalition has always been a "high-maintenance alliance," Black said. Volatile issues like the state flag can create new fractures that are difficult to overcome, especially in a state trending Republican, he said. Republicans control the congressional delegation, the governor's office and the state Senate. Democrats still control the state House.

Tuesday night, conservative white Democrats in the House, under pressure from their rural constituents who back the flag referendum, sided with Republicans to pass the measure despite the pleas of their black colleagues during an emotional six-hour debate.

There were 106 Democrats who voted. All 39 black Democrats voted no. And 26 white Democrats also voted no, virtually all of them from metro Atlanta.

But 41 white Democrats voted yes -- almost all from small towns or rural Georgia. And 69 of the 71 Republicans who voted -- none of them black -- voted also yes.

For white lawmakers from rural Georgia, like House Majority Leader Jimmy Skipper (D-Americus) and Speaker Terry Coleman (D-Eastman), the split is a no-win situation.

"We'd like to see it solved so that it pleases everybody, but that's not in the cards right now," Coleman said. "Some people will feel hurt a long time about this, whatever happens."

Rural white Democrats depend on support from blacks and whites -- constituencies on opposite sides of the flag issue. There's no middle ground.

"That kind of rural politician just wants to avoid the issue," said Michael Binford, a political scientist at Georgia State University. "They can't win no matter what they do."

Blacks blame both Skipper, who voted for the flag referendum, and Coleman, who as speaker does not vote but allowed it to come up for a vote.

"I think the white Democrats are giving the governor exactly what he wants," said Rep. Douglas Dean (D-Atlanta), an African-American. "You might as well just say the Republicans run the state."

Jo Ann McClinton (D-Atlanta) wore a large black ribbon on her lapel Friday to "mourn" the Democratic breakdown on the flag vote. "The Democratic leadership has deserted those of us of color in the state," she said.

Rep. Calvin Smyre (D-Columbus), an African-American who chairs the state Democratic Party, planned to spend the weekend trying to bring the two sides together. Smyre said he has scheduled meetings between some of the 38 black House members and white House leaders.

"Right now there is a lot of frustration and people are on edge," Smyre said. "My job is now to bring some closure."

In political parlance, the flag controversy is called a "wedge" issue because it divides a normally cohesive political alliance.

Rep. Tom Bordeaux (D-Savannah) said Republicans are using the flag issue for long-term political gains. "I originally thought the governor stumbled into the election and has fumbled his way through this session," said Bordeaux, who chairs the House Judiciary Committee. "But I've come to believe his purpose . . . is to drive a wedge . . . through different arms of the Democratic Party."

Bordeaux, one of the two dozen white lawmakers to side with blacks on the flag vote, said the strategy is effective. "It splits the state politically, racially, philosophically into a thousand splinters," he said. "Who's ultimately the victor? The Republicans. But at what price?"

[EternalVigilance]

Ah, the incredible power of symbols...

[numberonepal]

The flaggots are stupid, the Democrats are stupid, and Metro A-Town Rep's are historically crazy/stupid (The McKinney's). Don't they have anything better to do? Oh yeah, they do I forgot. The Georgia Legislature destroyed the private mortgage business in one fell swoop over the issue of "predetory lending".

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[camle]

sure is more fun carping about the state flag than it is to actually do something constructive, eh?

I mean, why solve the states' problems when you can cast slings and arrows at each other instead?

[Grand Old Partisan]

Every Confederate rebel was a Democrat. Said the Governor of Indiana in 1866: "The Democratic party may be described as a common sewer and loathsome receptacle into which is emptied every element of treason, North and South, every element of inhumanity and barbarism which has dishonored the age."

In contrast, the southern blacks and the Billy Yanks in the hills -- the hillbillies -- were loyal to the U.S. Government and so voted Republican as soon as they could.

[Tacis]

It is soooo much easier for democrats at the national level. All the black congressmen are step-n-fetchits who belong to the fully segregated Congressional Black Caucus and do EXACTLY what the white leadership orders them to do, from voting a straight party line to lying about whatever they are told to lie about.

Maybe some of these Georgia boys can borrow some of the sacred robes from Kleagle Byrd and get these folks back in line.

[EternalVigilance]

Nothin' new under the sun, eh? ;-)

[Grand Old Partisan]

That's the point of my book -- the Democrats have ALWAYS been this way.

[AppyPappy]

You have to laugh when the most important issue to a legislature is a flag. Not education. Not jobs. Not graft. Not the murder rate in Atlanta. A frenching flag for crying out loud.

"Yes maam, I'm sorry your son was gunned down in a drive-by shooting and your daughter is pregnant and can't pass 9th grade but I promise to fix that flag problem that has been making your life a living Hell". Irony is certainly ironic.

[Hacksaw]

The flag was never an issue until the NAACP and the Democrat party made it one.

[ken5050]

Has Martha Burke opined on the issue yet?

[wasp69]

19th Century Democrats=Jeffersonian Democrats interested in less government intervention.

20th Century Democrats=New Deal Socialists who want more government intervention.

Not the same animal.

[Grand Old Partisan]

Nineteenth century Democrats believed in the government enslaving one-third the population and whipping them to pick cotton. You can't get much more Big Government than that!

[wasp69]

Nineteenth century Democrats believed in the government enslaving one-third the population and whipping them to pick cotton. You can't get much more Big Government than that!

The government enslaved one third of the population? Wow! When did the government do that? And here I thought all along it was private property owners.

No, they decided it was up to the STATES how to handle that issue not a centralized government. They decided it was up to the states, both North and South, to make up their minds what to do and how to handle it. On the other hand, it was the nineteenth century Republicans who decided to force a conflict and enslave eleven states for ten years via the power of the central government; nevermind that it did not have the power to do it to begin with.

[Tall_Texan]

Said the Governor of Indiana in 1866: "The Democratic party may be described as a common sewer and loathsome receptacle into which is emptied every element of treason, North and South, every element of inhumanity and barbarism which has dishonored the age."

WOW. What a visionary! As true today as it was then.

[Southack]

I don't know much about Georgia politics, but I can tell you that there is a growing split between the mindsets of hyper-urban areas from that of rural areas.

So it wouldn't surprise me to see this so-called "wedge" issue, which is nominally about a cloth flag design, to really be more about a backlash in rural and sub-urban areas to a power-play from Atlanta politicians that just about took over the entire state system.

But then again, that's just my guess. Who knows, people really might be willing to press an issue so hard that it breaks all of their political power, simply because they prefer one cloth flag design over another...

[Grand Old Partisan]

His name was Oliver Morton, and his statue is in the U.S. Capitol. This speech used to be famous, until all the history books came to be written by Democrats. That's why I wrote my history of the GOP, from the Republican point of view.

[Grand Old Partisan]

If the government passed a law saying someone could enslave YOU, whether the government enslaved you or it was the person who actually chained you up would be, as the saying goes, a distinction without a difference. One of the reasons for secession was the Republicans' refusal of a demand by the Democracts for a federal slave law. So, it was the southern slave-owners who were attempting to violate the sovereignty of northern states.

[jriemer]

sure is more fun carping about the state flag than it is to actually do something constructive, eh?

I mean, why solve the states' problems when you can cast slings and arrows at each other instead?

If the GA legislature's way of "solving problems" is similar to the way the "solved" the GA lending industry, I'd rather they were distracted from passing more laws with the flag issue.

There's less harm inflicted on normal Georgians with this approach...